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The Brooklyn Nets equipped for a day street recreation on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However the finish outcome was not what they hoped for as Darius Garland and the Cleveland Cavaliers bought the higher of the shorthanded Nets, 114-107. It was James Harden and Kyrie Irving’s first full recreation enjoying with out Kevin Durant, and it’s not an encouraging begin to say the least.
Durant suffered an MCL sprain within the final contest, and he’s reportedly a 4-6 week absence. With that mentioned, there figures to be a Huge 2, if and provided that the Nets are away from Barclays Middle. However for Brooklyn’s dwelling video games, Irving gained’t be round in order that they’ll lean on simply Harden and complementary gamers like Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge for these matches.
Clean operator@JHarden13 #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/JXet0WueOy
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 17, 2022
At one level within the recreation, Harden took a knee to the thigh, however he emphasize he’d be superb.
“Yeah I simply bought a knee, I’m good, I must be all proper,” mentioned Harden after the sport. The Beard completed with 22 factors, seven rebounds and 10 dimes. He stored the strain on the Cavs by attending to the road 15 occasions, connecting on 10 freebies.
After the loss, he was requested what went flawed down the stretch.
“Man I don’t suppose it’s about down the stretch, I believe it was your entire recreation,” Harden added. “I do know individually, myself, I gotta be rather a lot higher, each ends of the ball. Simply quite a lot of mishaps or no matter you wanna name it, I gotta be higher.”
Harden famous that the Nets permitting 65 first half factors to the Cavs was actually the place issues went awry for them.
The crew is hopeful that Kevin Durant will probably be again a while after the All-Star Break. KD is main the NBA in factors per recreation with 29.3, and that gained’t be a straightforward gap to fill.
So the crew who has performed treasured few video games with out their Huge 3 must proceed to attend for these ever elusive scary hours.
The sport Monday was really fairly winnable. At one level, the Nets have been up 97-93. Sadly, they couldn’t shut this one out. Steve Nash’s guys didn’t rating their subsequent area aim till there was simply over 4 minutes to play. Nonetheless, it was tied 105-105 with 3:43 remaining till they went chilly and the upstart Cavs closed on a 9-2 run down the stretch.
Brooklyn now drops to 27-16 total and 15-5 on the street. The Cavs win their fifth consecutive recreation and additional jam up the standings in a much-improved Japanese Convention.
How can the Nets win these video games with out KD?
“I believe we simply have to simply be able to make changes on the fly,” mentioned Irving after the sport. Kyrie bought scorching at one level. He completed with a recreation excessive 27 factors to go together with seven boards and 9 dimes in his fourth recreation of the 12 months.
“Do no matter is required for guys to fill in that position. I imply you may’t change Kevin. It’s unattainable. So I believe we simply face that actuality proper this second and transferring ahead on this street journey,” Irving continued.
“Simply be able to be versatile, recreation to recreation….we all know that on a given evening me an James can go for 30 apiece, however we’re actually wanting ahead to seeing quite a lot of the fellows collectively, chip in on the offensive finish. After which defensively, simply our communication must be that rather more crisp we don’t have any person that may actually clear up among the errors on the bottom like Kevin…. Im nonetheless discovering my bearings with the crew, so we simply take it one recreation at a time.”
Irving additionally opened up after the sport about his vaccination status and views on that subject. He set issues straight on if he’ll get vaccinated now that Durant is ready to overlook time.
“Kev’s gonna heal. Kev’s gonna be OK. And we’re gonna should cope with that as his teammates. However when it comes to the place I’m with my life exterior of this I keep rooted in my determination and that is simply what it’s. It isn’t gonna be swayed simply due to one factor….”
-Kyrie Irving
— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) January 17, 2022
Irving was additionally requested to replicate on the entire issues from accidents, to vaccine mandates that has stored their Huge 3 from sharing the ground.
“A loaded query man, yeah it’s rather a lot to course of. What we meant to be and what we nonetheless intend to be however all these hiccups and uncontrollable issues. Within the playoffs final 12 months James goes out after which I’m going up for a shot and Giannis comes over and his foot simply occurs to be in the way in which. After which this 12 months coming into the season this example that I’m in after which now have been coping with Kev being out and I simply suppose it’s a kind of issues that actual life takes precedent over this recreation a lot and whenever you’re on the market something can occur and a part of being a part of the crew is simply taking that collective responsibly as soon as it hits and simply coping with it.”
“It’s robust although,” continued Irving, “when you concentrate on simply how all of that is nonetheless coming collectively and we’ve but to play a constant quantity….our time is coming. It’s coming. It is probably not now however I undoubtedly really feel like a few of these issues that occur are for a purpose and it’s for an even bigger objective. We’ll see what occurs.”
If these Nets go on to win the 2022 NBA championship, it might actually be one to savor after all of the obstacles that stood of their means. For now, they’ll take it sooner or later at a time.
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